Susan McGinn, 57, says an elderly-looking trickster walked suspiciously close to the front of her car as she parked in Junction Road, Archway, on Monday afternoon.

As she got out, the man pointed to a slick of oil that had mysteriously appeared on the grille and said there must be a problem – before offering to fix it up for the princely sum of £10.

Mrs McGinn, of nearby Raydon Street, felt he was acting strangely – and her scepticism was only increased when she noticed some of the oil had somehow found its way to the top of the bonnet.

She said: “He said ‘I’m a mechanic, I can fix it’. He said not to touch it because it’s very dangerous and the car might blow up! I was with my husband who knows a fair bit about cars, and he thought it was very odd.

“I told the man to get lost and when we cleaned the oil off the car there was nothing wrong with it at all.

“We have a blue badge because my husband is disabled, which he saw us put up. He was obviously picking on us because he thought we would be vulnerable, easy targets.”

She is convinced the strange character was trying to rip her off and has reported the incident to the police. “I’m 100 per cent sure it was a scam and the police thought so too,” she said.

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